London G20 meeting rejects plan to cap bankers’ bonuses

Bankers blamed for the global financial crisis will see their pay packages limited under a blueprint for steering the international economy towards recovery, it emerged yesterday.

But finance ministers from both rich and developing countries failed to agree a controversial French-German plan to impose a cap on the amount financial sector workers can receive in bonus payments in future.

Although the cap proposal was thrown out in the face of objections from the Americans and the British, the G20 agreed a “clawback” scheme to ensure that bonuses are linked to the long-term success of deals and could be forfeited if they fail to deliver over a period of years.

Ministers also pledged to keep in place stimulus measures to boost the global economy, warning that the fledgling recovery which provided the backdrop to their meeting was by no means assured.